Kindergarten Orientation

Yup, I took my baby to kindergarten orientation today. KINDERGARTEN! I have a feeling I'll be saying things like this for the rest of my kids' lives, but how did we get here so quickly? I can quite literally remember what it felt like to hold little baby Maya in my arms, and it can't have been five whole years ago. I just don't believe how quickly we got to this point. They say that when you become a parent, the days are long but the years are short. And it is pretty much the most true thing I've ever heard. Seriously. Anyway... I brought both kids with me to orientation, since Niko didn't have school until after lunch-- I figured he could sit there quietly (and he did). As we got out of the car, Maya's friend Zoe came running over. Zoe was very nervous, and it was clear that she was tremendously relieved to see a familiar face! So we all walked over together, and I took pictures of the two girls in front of the school sign:

We made our way inside, and found more friends to sit with. It was sort of eye opening-- I recognized well over half of the kids/parents in the room. Probably more like 75%. Proof that our town is, in fact, small! haha! Maya has a lot of great friends who will be starting kindergarten this year, and it was exciting to see everyone in one place! We sat with this crew, but there were many others (from the left: Jamie, Zoe, Maya, and Eliza)

I may have mentioned this at some point when preschool began last fall, but Zoe's mom is Greek! Which makes her half Greek, like Niko and Maya. And the three of them might be doing Greek school together. See how perfectly that worked out? :)

Anyway, the kindergarten teachers came in and read lists of names, and the kiddos they called went off with them to their classrooms. Meanwhile, the parents (and Niko) got to listen to the usual spiel. It wasn't terribly exciting. I got to tell everyone about the Box Tops program. Hooray! haha! Really, the main thing was for the kids to go into the classrooms and begin to feel comfortable at the school. Maya already feels pretty much at home there, due to me dragging her there all the time. But this was her chance to be on her own, and she loved it! So I'd say today was a great success!

After the orientation was over and all the incoming kindergarteners got to play at the playground for a few minutes, we zipped home and did a quick costume change. Literally. Maya had dance pictures after lunch, which meant that she needed to get her costume on and do hair/makeup. And I had to get Niko on the bus in the middle of all that. However, we got it all done, it was 72 degrees outside when we finally got home. So the girl and I lounged in the back yard for a while. It was glorious! Especially since it's supposed to rain for the next few days... boo!